The first time Zola Jesus performed in Los Angeles, it was just Nika Rosa and some backing tracks. She crawled across the floor between people’s legs and though she was as small and delicate as a cat, she filled the room with her voice like a big shadow or a ghost. Finding a welcoming audience here, Rosa moved to Los Angeles and wrote her second album, Conatus. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

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Former Ghosts is giving away a mixtape prequel to New Love, the next album. The mixtape features a good amount of mourning and redemption seeking, a bunch of special guests, remixes, demos, a Blink 182 cover, and many stabs at new love. For the next album, Yasmine Kittles of Tearist joins Freddy Ruppert, Jamie Stewart [...]

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Zola Jesus is post-punk Christina Aguilera for these people who gather preciously attentive. Her operatic range dreams of abandoned cathedrals to drag a scarf across. She does pop but—just as Zombelle (and the absent Tearist)—turns the standard form inside out, scratching some runs in its stockings.

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She was tiny. One girl in the audience motioned of picking her up like a snack and popping Roza in her mouth. Cute, a bit hunched over, messy black hair, she bellowed and swooned between crouching at her sampler to cue beats for the next song.

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Nika Roza and Freddy Ruppert must have met on some dark wave in the post-goth apocalypse. She lends her howling to his Former Ghosts, but as Zola Jesus, she lays down her own chilly rhythms and haunts their lattices with operatic breath. Darkness spreads its surreal shadows. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

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Thank technology for letting three musicians in three different parts of the country be a band together. Former Ghosts is Freddy Ruppert (This Song Is A Mess But So Am I), Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), and Nika Roza (Zola Jesus). Make their L.A. show your Halloween destination. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

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